The Sun. — London, England, 1810-03-30 00:00:00

622. rat I, , Trus posTponed hi;.. motion whicq for to-morrow, respe wing the exeMption of :;ire;.; io the army and Navy from the Income- Tuesday. _ . 'A Person' trum the Exchequer presented an .ac cc..s.,it of all sums of money i.,seed from that Office, e•.:-;,elint to Addregse3 of the House . of Commons.— ' Ordered to he on the table. AVHattToN mated -tliat the House should co , istrijr .tion the Me.ss4ge of the Lords for the attend .iire of the Lon) Ativocite of 59AI:ilia be-' , re'a Coinmi!tee of ihe Peers, 6t , the Corti Distil late +t P %,11. Ginn Bill.—The House gave us pertnis- Oon for his attendance a‘.coiding!y 7 • . • • A Message tram the Lords annenneed their Loyd-, Ape a , sent, to the • Sugar Bounty Lill, and several' ivate Bins. . Irish Sugar Drawback Bill 195 read a.third. time and pusse . i. Sir F. Ile4owr.T . gave notice that he would on T etas, te.,“ bring forward 14 rezpoing Captain Lake. . . • • • A,o eern an cort,rio gave notice -of a motion on Vonoay, respecting the address of thp City of • London. The House then- went into_ a Committee on the MACAc:ts, After ,nano ohservations from Mr. Alderman Comak,. Mr. •Fp , ,Tutt pfepesed.*veral regAerions, wiper' wtre.agreed the, House re sumed, and the, report orqerp,L to be teceived to, tuoi row. - - • , On the motion of Sir S. RoviLLY, she Com mittee on toe Critaninal Laws Bill was po,tp ed. to. Wednesday.—Th., Corlio4i•ree on .the, Expir ing Laws Bill, .was hliewise postponed to tins day • sq'llPighi. I , • Lord CASTLEREAGH moved, that a Letter from Sir W. Erskine to the duarter.Master-General, in closing the Report of the Witi August 1.009, shall be, laid before the House., The Nole Lord brought forward this, motion, , on the graunds..of illustrating certain p ,ints Avhicit .appeared in the e‘idence of the Quarter,Master-Getieral„ at the . Bar .of the Hottve, relative to .ote .11mmber, of the enen3yis a ! troops stationed on the Scheldt; •and in Antwerp. General T4tLys..ToN 'did not Abject to the motion. Mr. CALcRAWT expressed in strong terms his sur- 1 Priseat Quarter Master General's giving-in ati account which stated the arnowit of troops to be 35 4 000 men, toduciapg al 9,fice , s and seamen, when it .was tbrs opinion of 'the .I.,,*ut-nzi.rit-General that exclusive of die artitiLexs, the reply troops amount ? ' echo I)44llnutnnrr • - . Qeuers cRAM/FORQ vindicated .the charaaer of his .. 49n. Friend trom the imputation Which had been tornwn on it by thg.HoP.,Gentlemao.• When the statement of thirty -L ve • th-. ! usawl, ,rnsn was given in,, it ;' "ay titricocciputii-eit by vtlY Okejvation,• mid ineitoecukke.eorgie,g9ecies.whicli !tvery army ; 1 4e. Pc , C94tit ha oye ,the, , Ogst.possil2l, but ce4 - ,ta i iiity,,rAt.thtt e,,Jtetudeit...wikli a warni.pa,.,egyric nzi thi.•?gitliaiit 6enetal, ,tie stated beld ,i ! + high esteem by floe: R. , ,Abercrombie, and . to .whow coudpct the -,safety of the aktn i r in ,iis retreaLtront Hollpitd,lx!as.owing ; he. would .1101 633/ Q 14 04 0 A hitILSCIf ).4:9; Or,Ole charAeter ; of -a itrlni ,he did : npt,Atand.forward tudelettd Ws character .from any . insinuatiu.n. Mr. CA!..ejosT,said, the 1-ron.. Member had put a .cilgstrur.tioii ,on what he had a leged, which tie diJ not ,inteng : he acknowledged the worth of Gen. Brownrigg, yet he.had a righ..to comment on his • testimony -as ,well as that ,of any,other officer whose evidence speared hefore the ,House. The Journal of thpHon. General hp had heard spoken.of with. t i me greatest xespeCt and credit ; but. General 'Br() nrigg :had,. in a detailed. p ip.,r,:st4ted the amount of the troops io be 30,000, exclusive of artificers and seamen ; and had at the Bar of that. House made a reduction of 5000 men from his original account. ,General ORAWFORD explained. Lord CASTLEUEAGH, in his own jultifieation, would read several extracts from Sir Wm. Ers- kine's evidence at hi- Bar, which proved it 'was his individual opinion, that in I be.statement .5900 men . were plainly declu-led fur artifices s and seamen.-,-- The , Papers were then ordered to be laid hefure the House. ADIOURNED DEBATE ON THE EXPEDITION - TO. THE SCHELDT. . General TA RL ETON commenced. by observing, he felt some consolation, in,not-havin4 interrupted, the dreanas • cf the. Hun.: General. who:spoke !last night, but l atiernly. follow.od • him through his iinagi nary Lampaigns zoad..ali!.his. horrors •of storm and battery. _The iion. -peutiew 4 l3 , , g oe an ~elaborate description ~.of the operatio.us ,of 1 40,0.00. Meg/ be-. tweets the grits' iincljheVe,ser ; and informed the House the, co.' tept -sniAsiAtrid between -Austria • and • Frame, the melancholy and.disastrooseventot which was for. to‘d...,by 'many tare. ';.1140.• theai , passed . to. Span), and took v low ot, Cadiz,and there -no flattering 'prospect prysents. itself. The next point concerned a . project whick,he Chad the honour of sathruitting the-House-on. the4irstday of , the Session, hich,-, if . adopted . by, Ministers,. wool(' .have.. leen ~produaive of the most happy' consequences ; . be. allnded ,•,to,hisadvice of sending. GOO men •eitlirr from this Rountry, or from the.. troops,in.Spain,, to. Sicily; tt 4 ur, in ,this the Hon. Gentleman ,would not agree. The Scheldt, nothing. but the..Scheldt, was the (4i:tied a his Majesty's Knitters, The cireadigjf itoasion.was*, the excuse .The Ge;uileinan observed there .were. three. Punic wars„.iind cautioned the House. to be ware ot , a fouvti„and therefore, it should • be-carel ul not to tivish.thd...resowces of • the country iry and impra4.t , cable •projeCts, 'such as Ah..silate,expedi tion was. ,The, Hon.: General- said. that the opera- Cogs in the,Scheidt .we.re for the 14urpOse of mak ing a diversiint-in • favour of Austria ; he, denied that, it Ave's: so, .for.he was convinced his Majes ity:s Ministers. were , well acquainted :with the pos ture's:A. affairs; , they . kiiew tlit the armistice be tweet) France and. Austria .was signed ; and there fure,:from ,the conviction of :Napoleon's never con eluding a negocialion. without tile destruction of a • igioni•they.tnust have known that Austria was ready subdued. The Hon. Member sp: , ke at length with regard to 1::.e opinion of Officers of scientific . knowledge, on the F)l4gticabiiity of tuts measure'; they were inattltiousindoing without persouarinspecion ; in the can non occurienccs . ot i)fe, 'in a duel, it is oust:lfni : lu to commit, to a 0e hk.t riaatig ! Mein of the iif air, to wiloe (Lull every thing is confided, but the neglect e%inced. in the present instance is unparalleled in military an, The rlon. Geetletnan hid commented rather too severely on the evidence of Sir Wni. when tit the Bar o'r the House ; he thought the setil of his illeStrious - father was transmitted to hieson, so admirable and so .correct were his ideas -of the lot taess and the country: The-year • t 740 had been aeserted to. when Lillo Was taken in five.daye e the Hon. General eid not recoiled it was invested then by e re e tilrie ermy, and every possibility of reiefoice ment's Pire.6u:ted. Antwerp he had mentioned too, forgettine ai that time the Pienclt were masters of the country, and in possessionot Bergen-op-Zoom e tektite iu the present instance - eycry day . 'added eerength and force to the garrison. When ihe 1-'on. deneral had concluded histooideration of theplaces, he proceeded to a detail_ of the operations. Ac cording to the stalemenr, .22,000 men proceeded to Antwerp;, but with resPed . te , e did not on derstand what Was -Meant' hi sAyleg part of the town 'Was in our possession e but this OpeiatiOri he considered a visionary vent; viei 'scheme, - undereakere - WiiliouCa•possibility of being practicable. Theai my arrived at Walcheren op i L'e 29th Atli ;- iiiiVas debarked; btirby an stinaecountablPdel.iy; the first parallel was / net opened till_ the 7th of Aug - USt.. Every ihing was driven into 'FluShing, hiCh - this greatarmy of 40,000 men did not possess tor nine teen days. Would Gentlemen compare vs hat had been done with 'what was intended, and tvil 'it not bethought that the mbee of opera ion most Slow and e!tiniberiug; at a time when every Illove ment..was imporiatit. The gartiiun.Of 'Flushing -consisted of 5000 them If 6000: had been' laUded end marched &redly in a 'colUMn - there, she sup plies could have . beenctit otr, and the inundation preVented besids; the enemy might have been in duced to hazard a contest'in the heir], and en op portunity- night be giVen 'of taking the town by a -couil-de-Main. *The HOnourable General obserie 7 •ed,- that Gentlemen had laid much stress Upon - the • - hopes of success which 'were expeded in consequence 'ot the proposed plan for bembard ing• the fortress of Antwerp. With that military knowledge which he possessed, he was fully justified in hazarding the OPiliien'that the ropes 'of success' could neverbave been realited.• He had teen in the American War failures in besieging places which completely bore him out: An the 'attack upon'yrk • Town, in Which three thousend five hundred-then tr were engaged - , and in whiCh it w'ae'confiderilly ek peeled success Would attend theiretforts, the coil.; trail was the result, for: the town - did not fall in consequence of • the - attack, but solely - from the gar rison being in want of provisioni. Again it had been said that tee g'irrison of CoPenhagen would have surrendered on being bombarded: • Copenhagen, • however, as' bad been "proved; was fully invested before it-tell into the hands of the 'English: With respect to the investment Of . Antwerp, that was a proceeding which could not be".aceonsplistead, as the Avirtiie of the evidence had shewn. The Noble . Lord,-in the course ot hiS • speechon a formernight, 'had stated, that the expences of the •expedition did not amount to more than 800,0001. However much the . Notelel.,Ord might value finuselt upon the eco netny of his plate his'slatement atleast was not cor reef. -It was in fact perfectly ridiculous, Let Gen tlemen but only look at the single eqetice of trans ptirts for the conveyance Of troops, end then in ad tit ion look at tie ordeance department, to be con vincedthat the statement could not 6e C o r re a. deed the Secretary for Ireland (Mr. We Pole) had given pretty goad - proof of what the expence of ord. native: stores would bp k . The gallant Gen, the n t o ok review of the expences at tending several other depart- . meats in the expedition from which he contended that the aggregieteexpence must have exceeded the return laid on the table. With this entailed expeirce Upon' the country, and . the loss of upwards of 7000 br.we soldiers, whO had cost the country, at a tito 7 derate . compotation, litti6 short of forty pounds per man, would it be endured. that -the Ministers. who had thus unadvisedly and 1-eedlestly .conduded themselves, .should go unpunished ? sFrom keno-. derate calCulation, he conceived that instead . . of 800,0001. as stated. by. the. Noble Loid, the expence would fall not much short of 3;090,0001. which' sum the ceetttry must. pay for an unsuccesQful at tempt to obtain possession of the fleet in the Scheldt. The Hon. General having commented at some length on the items, and sheven the material differ ence in the estimates as compared with the adual expenditure, contended, that the' calamity which had been generally felt and deploaed, could only 'have arisen- in-consequencepf the inefficient counsel of Ins• Majesty's present-and late servants, and with this Opinion be should find himself compelled 'to .vote against the amendment proposed -by the 'Hon' ?General on a former night. Mr. Rosa was not prepared to follow- the Gallant General through his speech, because he -was not ,qualified fully to discuss military matters, The •Hon. 'General had, however, chosen to censure the !Commanders in the Expedition, both by sea and land-L-that the Right Hon. Gentleman Conceived . . was-a fruitless course to pursue, for the r eso l ut i o n was.already in the hands of the Speaker which con veyed an approval of their conduct. Indeed, there seemed to be no difference of ,opinion on that head. -. The-Honourable Gentleman had -not vestal satisfied with "passing his censure upon the Military Com menders, but had found fault with Ministere for :the general , policy- of the Expedition. He. had contended that the _force which had- been sent to :the Scheldt should have been directed 'to make an effort in:support - of the common cause in the North of •Germany.• On 'military :grounds. he could not answer the Honourable General, but thiS be did know, that the 'Expedition to the Scheldt had t his practical benefit, that it set - tied to divert the at-. .teution of a Most .powerful part of the etiemyte force, and to draw them off 'from the Banks of the Danube. This had bLeti. of high service to Aus tria during the armistice. The Right Hon.Gentlernan . was prepared to contend that if Flushing had been . the only object it was the duty of Ministers to en ,eleavour toeobtain it. In order to ~ hew that he did not depend merely on his own opinion he should state. the authority of a great Officer—an Officer whose loss. the country will long deelore—lie meant the gallant .Nelson. When Lord Nelson was .ap pointed .to go to: .tbulogne, he had - directed his (Mr. Rose's). attentioneto thdimportanee of - having Flushiug in our poSsession. The 'opinion of that gallant Officer rtes, that the fortress Might lia; , e been taken in flier or five days, with • a force 'of five thotisaud 'men, and- the' ;assistance of a• few 113iS. shipa ; Le ,had expre;sed a wish to be employed on that service-if Lis Majesty's. Ministers thought pro• p e r.- Titus it appeared-to.him (Mr. R.) that the re tention of Flushiug was- a ,point Of very high irn - - 4)orrance. Such : had been - .Lord Nelson's opinion. , Captain Owen, a very able and intelligent. Of- - fieer; was of a' similar, opinicn ;` he considefed the !Occupation of it as highly important, especially in' regard to the invasion of this country. Whar waS' the opinion of another gallant officer; Sir Richard ,Strichari:? also had stated that twenty ships of the line might lie at all times and in all weathers secure 'and ready for sea in the basie of F1f.i41... • ing. The Right flon'oneable Gentleman contended Mei - eft:ire,. that the retention of Flushing was of more importance than the destruction :of the fleet ; for Gentlemen Must be - aware, that the mere destruction of -the Shipping in the:'fiver eebuld net' deitroy -the forest, and that consequently- unless we had. the place; the damage might be repaired. If Ave were in possession of the river; and of the tot'n,. which was deperninated " the key-stone of the, s.ll,le4rlt,'! aed if the navigation of the river could have been ob streeted by sinking vessels or by any other means, he Should have thought theeXpeclit ion Well employed, It had bee.tl the (pinion of Sir Richard Strachanahat such 3 plan was praaieab' . q. NNT-iS it then he would: ask, surpi CI:At MiniSters should have entertained a similar opipioe lt . had been urged, as a ground Of censure that the expedition 'was the largest' ever fitted out by tbil - rEotiiiiryri - bitt he - vas Prepared to contend, that in amount and magnitude, it was not equal to many that had .left the shores, if it was taken into consideration, that the state of the paval force was greater then on former oceasions when expedi; Cols Were sent out. The Right Honeurable Gen tletran then took a review of the various expedi tions'for the last eighty years, several - of which had been more powerful, - and had performed less than • the one no* under discußsion: He. alluded parti cularly to that of 7 757, whiCh retained to port aft ter having,effeaed no more than the - destruc tion of the bason at Cherbourg, and brought Away a few brass guns. What had been - effected, he might ask of 'the Gentlemen opposite, in the Dardanellei expedition'? HaVing made several obserVatiOns, and contrasted the resalts of th ose ` e xpediti o ns - With ihe present; he .concluded with Opp o si e g the Neu „ le Lord's Resolutions. • Lord FRANCIS OSBORNE considered that. the ques titan fOr the decision of the Elouse was not whe ther Ministers were to; blame, or whether the Commanders of the Expedition were to blatne for - the failure which hadensued, but whether the coup, try had.suffered in consequence. 'That the country had suffered was very ,evident, it thereforebecame the duty of Parliament to * censure the persons who had been instrumental` in producing those sufferings. The Noble Lord, adverting to the operations hi Holland t eno, thought that the lesson which had been experienced in the protracted operations there, should :have operated as. a beacon to guide Ministers, and have induced wisdom.. It - had been admitted by Ministers, that at bcst,success vas pri:, carious. Whit, therefore, could induce them .to send so large an expedition upon such, a seriee, lie was at a loss to guess, unless awes the practice of folly, and the result of incapacity. Tice Noble Lord was of opinion, that all the blame which at tached' was imputable to Mipisters. Much cause for complaint and for serious regret occurred, in consequence of the loss of so many of t;ir brave' appeared that when the expediti I sailed, the season of unhealthiness had arrived at Flushing, audit- was al , o'rnanifest, from the evidence, of the Surgeon-General to the forces, that lie had not been -ccinsulted-as to the nature of the fever which affected our army, until after the sailing of the ex pedition. Upon a full attention to the evidence, be was obliged, to vote for the original resolutions. - Lord GEORGE GRENVILLE a rso . supported. the . . R esolutions. The Noble Lord made a comparison be tween the -Rochefort Expedition in 1.758 and the Expedition to the Scheldt. He read an acCount,Of the former Expedition, published in 1759,- and contrasted it with the account which the Noble Lord (Eastlereagh) had given of the Scheldt Expe dition in his Speech on a forreer night. , • Mr. W.,FITZGE.sALD rejoiced - that it was agreed on all hands that no inaPutation rested on the. Naval and Military Commanders of the Expedition,' and that their conduct might be Set out of the considera tion of the subject which' must be dis,cnssed solely with a reference to his Majesty's Government. He contended ghat had _ been distinelly proved by the evidence of the Quarter-Master-General and - the' Adjetant-General, that our m litary -means would not allow the formation of any prior expeditioti. With respect to,the risk, the knowledge of that risk accompanied not ooly' the progress, but even the contemplation of the plan. Government, however, satisfied of the advantages which the c ~edition Was intended to produce, by the 'deatruetion of' the - accumulated naval means of the enemy, hazarded' their own responsibility, ; and the minor consi- - •deration of the tenure of: their official situations. The Gentlemen opposite at one time contended, that the force at Antwerp was so great, that it was im possible successfully to attack it ; and at anothertirtie that the expedition had not created any div e r s io n b y 'the recal,of troops from the Danube, for that the gerrison of Antwerp was in an efficient state. One or other of these assertions must be true. The fact was, that the Dutch army had been recalled from Stralsund solely for the defence of Holland. The Noble Lord-by whom the debate had been opened had assumed WS much, when he said that the opinion of every military man who had been consulted on. the subject ought to have de terred Government from the attempt. To re fute this he entered into an exatninat,on of the military opinions in evidence, and contended that that of General Brownrigg particularly, wlibse sentimews(without making an invidiouS comparison) were as worthy of attention as those . Of any Officer whatever, thoughtfavottrably of it ; having dedared," that even on the 2.51 h, had it not been for the sick ness of the army, he' should have -recommended their advance in the confidence, that they would Late done (larch to _meet time hopes of the: country. There was another question al,O which mingled it self with . the consideration' of the - possible;. sur render -,of, Antwerp to a bombardment, . and that was the probability that that town might be indisposed towards ' the present dynasty of France. . 41 As to the nteution of Walcheren, he assured.• the Hon. Gentlemen opposite th a t th e y did not monopolize 11‘e feelings of sorrow for• the fi nether the import V ii tt e a l lte es ii i i t o re t a l ‘ ‘ i ; : a izi s (. , li iil l ( l ) 2 v d ..el t e lt r e:e: be ti.it e l t) h feat by distfa' - :e . • fi a se l e l v e d e e_ r h a o i l s f s ivi t u l e:c i e e t a ' s b s t i ii , e a s l a a d2L i t L i i l e sl l i r 6 ;ri t t i l o a t i l t l c s h ) ° : '4 ;:l. c ,k il c il l t d: l V : i i i ) r i a e v c d e i g r i d il l" n t b i l y . stances of Europe-a-in the balanced state of the vat' : " between France and 'Austria, to relinquish such a possession. Walelleren was e‘aeuited in OctobeCi, how much sooner would the nape Gentlemen h ir a r d po i a t it ,e e v h ae a ti ve ,ae h ( a i d w i l t w e n ia L cu o a r.ii ted .c : h;it l b N a . m . oull u d r tl e t d ey i ti llve e. tendon, and when Sir Richard Strachan varote home! conjuring Ministers pot to take any hasty step on ! sub s ie,'4 of suchimportaece both in a naval acid in t . militaky point of view ? before it was evaceated,t, the ws e i 1 4c iem ur ; l a b a e s n a t he on me u a s tis to of re t ri u d e e n r nc i e t art: a il il V ;1 1 i o l ; b ii i :Cf: Orders were - giver, to that effect as soon irs tu t, ,• ;Treaty bet'Ween France, 2114 Austria -ayes kii°Nca;: and as soon as those orders bed been carried all aa execution the . evacuation was effeed. If all the I. arguments which he had Used were well grounded i if there was no doubt of the "poliy of the . ExPe u a tion—if no Expedition could hate beeh under . taken at an earlier period—if no other Expediti °a could ha i Ve been undertaken with so fair a pr o ` spelt of secce , s, or' intfeed 'with sin h combine hopes of ad vantage--ifrho naval ancint jittery execu tion of the enterprize were free fr ont blame—it a 0 dishonour had t irni,lied his . M jesiy'S arms, then " e ae tliiightlhe..Hinise bound to ceucor in the am enoll t . merit of the Hon. Gentlemao, to which.he.onaffee • edly declared, that he agr e ed with e raat e ezaansfac m tinthan on any former occasion of a similar Hato e Mr. GRATTA'S;adverting to a part of the. observ e; H tionS that had fallen from a Right on. Gentleo' l opposite, said, that -he w ould not w i t h hi m en t e r 10 10 , 4 a comparison of the c on du c t o f t h e pr es ent wa r Wi ll ' the conduct of that u n d er th e di r e c ti on o f t h e gr , ek r , - Lord Ch itham. He would not ebe2li're....a ac ll 9 -- ; of defeats with elirieiOriiqiiiies. In rePIY what had been ur ged respecting the ret e ntieri eL Walcheren, he w ou ld a dd uce -the-. best •opinion t . Sir Richard Strachan, which was decidedly egail i .. , the retention. To-hav e reamed Walcheren it a:ou" have b, en. neaessary to leive sent immediaelY 3 large force to streply tee place of these troops wl'i , " So - E. Coote requ es ted might heimmediately wiL ll° .' drawn ; - and - afterwards to li:iVelincuffed a g l i-.,at arid nual loss.. Besidea;iltere was one argument a-Pi lls the retention of ,Flushig, which was urninsaeatbl e a It Was impossible to retain it. By a strange cebill' s sion of ideas, G ove r nment , b ecause they thougla it necessary to send an'armatnent to Wa-lciteren; e heti Austria was at war, to create a divelsoii, thought i t net essarf to keep that armament there waei. Artwi l awes at peace, and when no rational object was in viev• Ministers, howevt r, had been passessedof a dispose' able force, and they thought it necessary to d° something with it; but whether to take care of it, or to expose it to destruction, seemed tole va 'naent o them a [name of indifference. What was the opinioll of the General Officers on the objeet- of the exeedi; , tion ? They declaimed ;against it. The firit id , rl ei .• Government was to send an army by Ostend. -Thel afterwards mitigated the severity et the r idea, an determined to proceed by a joint naVal and military force. And -here -it was curious to observe, 1136 . Noble ViscOunt who had said so much ag 3 :" : the expediency ,of listening, to military op'eriors , • ' had in this instance listened •tO them with gre" c 1 deference; for had he not clone-. so, the- al° l would have been sent - by Ostend; that is, accord' hag to the declared sentiments - of all the Officers , they would have been sent to incur, not ri,k mere" ly, but utter desttuaion.' That plan -having cep abandoned, what was t h e op i n i on of the Officers 0° the conjoint_Expedition.?• That it was less imprac' ticalale than the - other, but that it was attenda° with a hazard which repdered it nearly desP e ' rate. Sir John 'Hope had declared,. - that as s OOl , l as -he saw the situation of things, he was persbade. u e that the attempt was impracticable. Lord Russlyn vv 2s of opinion that the 'Expedition could not at any till! have succeeded. Lord Chatham entertained , - 100 b' on 11. e subject, although those doubts had been borno down by the orders of the Admiralty. Sir n• ' Se:schen had expressed v to Lord Mulerave his.coll - that the Expedition would fail. The 'HO' Gentleman here entered into a minute examinatii' hi of the Report of the . Select Committee, which i .contained the information on which, G o v ernme nt 1 13 ' - ' . been induced to proceed, which information cliifil , went to prove- the dele nc el esa state o f Antwerp o,_ll its _neighbourho o d ; endecontended, th a t it wa s O r. • no means entitled to credit.—Of thefalsehood.of tP' . . s in:bamation indeed a sufficient proof lied- baen ° fr forded on the day after the sailing of the Expedition' for 90 the arrival' of the Marquis of Huntly at,C3C l ' sand, he found it impracticable. to etlect a landing,l' l, consequence,of the supe r i or f orce o f t h e enemy, al` though in the secret inforniation it was stated that the place was without troops: As little Credit was found to be due to-the representations of the dilapidated sta'f, of the fortifications of Antwerp. After,having ii , ve'' . at considerable length on this part of the subjec r, ~. the Right Non-Gentleman proceeded to state: lll ' 4 :- , the predictions of all the Officers had been verifier.t, •- ~ Ministers had sent out an expedition of one hundred thousand men, of .the result of whiCli the General '!.. „fled great doubts ; of which the Admiral , had 0° .. hopes of success ; without a plait of Aniwerp - or ot . _Lido, and without any system of co-operation, to i. _place where the troops, in addition .tu 'other evils, were visited by that most dreadful of all evils, con- ;1 tagious diseese. In - vain would: Mini s t e r s r e fer to - , former exploits of our brave soldiers, - and de clare that from - their spirit they had expeEted every '', thing: On .those_ occasions they had to content,' only against the enemy ;- in the present instance they • had to contend with a plague.' : Rl:vas no excuse fur: Ministers to say that'they relied on the spirit of the .army, when they exposed that army to an evil ovef ' . which no spirit could triumph. . Long after any lie cessity for retaining Walcheren had existed (-it any necessity, bad ever-existed), Government had persvea vered in its retention. There appeared to be a cor- :- respondent ignorance between the two Cabinets o Vienna and 'St. James's. The latter did not know'`' that the former had made a peace with France ; owl die former did riot know that the troopaeftLe lapel • were in the hospitals of Wale:fere!). In the whole. Of the transaettorr, Government had . t.: et n guilty 01 , conduct so 'reprehensible, th at r t cou ld be exceede°, only by -the conduct of th at P ert i ament who Wool t. f excuse them. • • .. • Mr. CANNING observed, his Hon. Friend h:id Cna" eluded expre . ss4, his oicion, that the calacmt►rs I;,, tar to no Alii fie( "')tl! I•. )``-